At Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
China and The Great Wall
China- Beijing & The Great Wall
Well, we made it. After an intense 16 hour travel day we arrived in Beijing, unfortunately 1 back-pack missing. Christina’s pack got held in our transfer city in China by the airline due to a cigarette lighter. But we managed for a day and were able to retrieve the pack in 24 hrs only lesser a handful of Yuan (Chinese Money) getting back and forth.
Beijing is big, very big. Over 20,000,000 people call the Northern Capital home. An extremely developed city to say the least, enormous high-rises and complexes are everywhere. Fast trains, buses, subways, taxis, cars, cars, cars are everywhere. Oh and did I mention lots of People? Beijing has felt a bit like Disneyworld during peak season on horse-steroids. Envision: line, line, waiting, waiting, crowd, crowd, push, push, nudge, nudge, and throw in a lot of spit, spit and you’ve got it. The Chinese are more “aggressive” than we’re accustomed to and we have some quick acclimating to get used to it appears. The Mandarin language describes the word “Guanxi” as “relationships”, which are imperative to Chinese culture, and if you don’t have a relationship with someone, you basically matter little or not at all, so it’s easy to see someone cut right in front of you in line or nudge you out of the way to claim their spot, since you kind of don’t exist.
The language barrier and reading barrier has been enormous, but we’re thankful for our beginner Mandarin lessons we had in Bali and a great travel tip to have someone write in Chinese an address or our need on paper so we can just shove it out to be read. China’s different and we’re getting cracked open even more by this experience.
Oh and we’ve done a crap load of walking in Beijing, it really does feel like going to an amusement park at the end of the day, except the only ride was the wave of people you surfed in to get crammed on the subway car.
The easiest highlight was going to see The Great Wall of China. It’s about 3 hours north of Beijing and we took a tour with about 40 other travelers to spend 4 hours hiking a 10k section of the wall with some very steep sections. It is truly a spectacular, awe inspiring sight. They said you could take all the bricks, stack them 1 meter high and it would still circumnavigate the entire globe. It stretched as far as the eye could see, right on the top of mountain peaks. The engineering feat and lives lost are mind boggling, I’m sure the wall doubled as a burial place for far too many of it’s constructors.
Other medium lights (not worthy of “highlights”): Tianamen Square, Olympic Village (Bird’s Nest Stadium), Flag Lowering Ceremony, The Forbidden City, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, & The Summer Palace. All very large places with lots of walking and viewing pretty places and buildings, unfortunately along with hordes of other people.
One thing I would comment on though is that China has a definitive “Buzz” about it of economic growth and opportunity. It has a little of what I imagine the industrial revolution in America must have felt like, crossed with the wild-west. There are 1.5 billion people here, all hustling to prosper, create and carve their success in the world. They are hungry, you can just sense it.
Well, we made it. After an intense 16 hour travel day we arrived in Beijing, unfortunately 1 back-pack missing. Christina’s pack got held in our transfer city in China by the airline due to a cigarette lighter. But we managed for a day and were able to retrieve the pack in 24 hrs only lesser a handful of Yuan (Chinese Money) getting back and forth.
Beijing is big, very big. Over 20,000,000 people call the Northern Capital home. An extremely developed city to say the least, enormous high-rises and complexes are everywhere. Fast trains, buses, subways, taxis, cars, cars, cars are everywhere. Oh and did I mention lots of People? Beijing has felt a bit like Disneyworld during peak season on horse-steroids. Envision: line, line, waiting, waiting, crowd, crowd, push, push, nudge, nudge, and throw in a lot of spit, spit and you’ve got it. The Chinese are more “aggressive” than we’re accustomed to and we have some quick acclimating to get used to it appears. The Mandarin language describes the word “Guanxi” as “relationships”, which are imperative to Chinese culture, and if you don’t have a relationship with someone, you basically matter little or not at all, so it’s easy to see someone cut right in front of you in line or nudge you out of the way to claim their spot, since you kind of don’t exist.
The language barrier and reading barrier has been enormous, but we’re thankful for our beginner Mandarin lessons we had in Bali and a great travel tip to have someone write in Chinese an address or our need on paper so we can just shove it out to be read. China’s different and we’re getting cracked open even more by this experience.
Oh and we’ve done a crap load of walking in Beijing, it really does feel like going to an amusement park at the end of the day, except the only ride was the wave of people you surfed in to get crammed on the subway car.
The easiest highlight was going to see The Great Wall of China. It’s about 3 hours north of Beijing and we took a tour with about 40 other travelers to spend 4 hours hiking a 10k section of the wall with some very steep sections. It is truly a spectacular, awe inspiring sight. They said you could take all the bricks, stack them 1 meter high and it would still circumnavigate the entire globe. It stretched as far as the eye could see, right on the top of mountain peaks. The engineering feat and lives lost are mind boggling, I’m sure the wall doubled as a burial place for far too many of it’s constructors.
Other medium lights (not worthy of “highlights”): Tianamen Square, Olympic Village (Bird’s Nest Stadium), Flag Lowering Ceremony, The Forbidden City, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, & The Summer Palace. All very large places with lots of walking and viewing pretty places and buildings, unfortunately along with hordes of other people.
One thing I would comment on though is that China has a definitive “Buzz” about it of economic growth and opportunity. It has a little of what I imagine the industrial revolution in America must have felt like, crossed with the wild-west. There are 1.5 billion people here, all hustling to prosper, create and carve their success in the world. They are hungry, you can just sense it.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Kuala Lumpur and the Incubus Concert
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I’ll keep this blog a bit shorter. We popped back to KL to obtain our Chinese Visas. Let’s just say they have a more reasonable and understanding Consulate than the one in Indonesia. But we were successful in getting approved and after 4 days in KL waiting for the processing to go through we are now cleared for 60 days touring China. Excited-yes, Nervous-a bit….who woudn’t be, China is a bit different: huge language barrier and outside of the big cities, nothing is written in English, so getting around and communicated should be fun challenges. Before we go, we did get a chance to take in the Incubus Concert in KL. We opted for the crazed fans area down on the floor about 20 feet from the stage. We’ve never sweat so much nor been so close to a different culture, let’s just say. What a blast though, we had a killer time and moshed in the pits with all the youngsters, jumping up and down and singing along like a couple of groupies. Christina got more than enough pics of the lead singer. We snagged a few souvenir tee-shirts and drank Angkor Beer and ate Kao Lai to celebrate.
To top it off, we met some cool Malaysian NBL basketball stars that night on the street and they told us about their championship game the next night, which we happily went to and had another great evening rooting on the home team with 5,000 other screaming fans. Our friends lost by 1 point on a last second shot for the title match, but they made an incredible game out of it. Was so exciting to see some pro hoops.
Well, off to China (Terracota Warriors, The Great Wall and hopefully Tibet, here we come)
To top it off, we met some cool Malaysian NBL basketball stars that night on the street and they told us about their championship game the next night, which we happily went to and had another great evening rooting on the home team with 5,000 other screaming fans. Our friends lost by 1 point on a last second shot for the title match, but they made an incredible game out of it. Was so exciting to see some pro hoops.
Well, off to China (Terracota Warriors, The Great Wall and hopefully Tibet, here we come)
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Bali, Indonesia Part 2
Canggu, Bali- 1 month in Paradise
Ahhh, finally settled into that paradise picture we had in our mind. Canggu is an area about 40 minutes north-west of the airport in Bali, located on the south-western coast of the island. Our long-stay hotel was near Berawa Beach, thus named the Berawa Beach Residence. Luckily there were only about 7 rooms and 3 townhouses here, so it had a very home-like feel. The Residence was quiet, super friendly staff, great neighbors and the perk of a membership to the “Canggu Club” (country club style healthclub). We took full advantage of free yoga classes, pool-side lounging, work-out facilities, tennis courts, saunas, steam rooms, posh locker facilities, etc. The staff at the Residence were so friendly and it was such a treat to have our rooms cleaned and beds made daily and have breakfast made for us each morning, ughhh, could get spoiled badly by this.
What impressed us most though was the picture perfect weather every single day and our great neighbors (Scott/Morna & Jackson, Stef/Monique, Debbie/Annikan). It’s feels great to have new friends who share so many of our common interests, very cool people. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer 30 days to re-energize, rest and be very lazy. I’d say the weather was around 82 deg. every day, sunny, and a strong enough cool breeze to fly kites daily. Truly paradise. When you think of that picture of Bali in your mind, this was it. We’d see at least 50 kites flying daily, lush rice fields, beaches, palm trees, green everywhere against a bright blue sky and loads of sunshine without being humid or too hot. It’s easy to see why so many ex-patriots call this home now. It’s only about a 3 hour flight from northern Australia, so it’s an easy destination for the Aussies, much like Cancun would be for us in the States.
Christina and I focused quite a bit on improving our yoga skills and had some great classes, 3-4 times each week. I’m proud to say I can do a legitimate head-stand now and Christina has turned out to be some kind of yoga prodigy, maybe after India she’ll even be teaching classes J
The only other piece to report was we got a chance to view/tour “Tanah Lot”. A very famous temple built on a rock outcropping shooting out from the ocean’s edge. Beautiful view there, a must see for any tourist.
Outside of touring this, we were pretty wonderfully lazy and spent our 30 days: taking many hot showers with water pressure, sleeping in large comfy beds, watching movies, shopping at the local markets, riding our motor scooter around in the fresh air, swimming at the club, some working out, and spending really enjoyable time with new friends.
We loved Bali and were so glad we worked our way through the tourist maze to find a peaceful area to rest and enjoy. I’d say we could so easily see finding a way back here to spend more and more time.
We’re headed back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next to get our Visas for China (we hope) and take in the Incubus Concert.
Next big destination- Beijing, China (Home of: The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, Kung Fu, Olympic Stadium, Peking Duck and Northern Capital to over 1.5 billion people), Excited and a bit nervous.
Ahhh, finally settled into that paradise picture we had in our mind. Canggu is an area about 40 minutes north-west of the airport in Bali, located on the south-western coast of the island. Our long-stay hotel was near Berawa Beach, thus named the Berawa Beach Residence. Luckily there were only about 7 rooms and 3 townhouses here, so it had a very home-like feel. The Residence was quiet, super friendly staff, great neighbors and the perk of a membership to the “Canggu Club” (country club style healthclub). We took full advantage of free yoga classes, pool-side lounging, work-out facilities, tennis courts, saunas, steam rooms, posh locker facilities, etc. The staff at the Residence were so friendly and it was such a treat to have our rooms cleaned and beds made daily and have breakfast made for us each morning, ughhh, could get spoiled badly by this.
What impressed us most though was the picture perfect weather every single day and our great neighbors (Scott/Morna & Jackson, Stef/Monique, Debbie/Annikan). It’s feels great to have new friends who share so many of our common interests, very cool people. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer 30 days to re-energize, rest and be very lazy. I’d say the weather was around 82 deg. every day, sunny, and a strong enough cool breeze to fly kites daily. Truly paradise. When you think of that picture of Bali in your mind, this was it. We’d see at least 50 kites flying daily, lush rice fields, beaches, palm trees, green everywhere against a bright blue sky and loads of sunshine without being humid or too hot. It’s easy to see why so many ex-patriots call this home now. It’s only about a 3 hour flight from northern Australia, so it’s an easy destination for the Aussies, much like Cancun would be for us in the States.
Christina and I focused quite a bit on improving our yoga skills and had some great classes, 3-4 times each week. I’m proud to say I can do a legitimate head-stand now and Christina has turned out to be some kind of yoga prodigy, maybe after India she’ll even be teaching classes J
The only other piece to report was we got a chance to view/tour “Tanah Lot”. A very famous temple built on a rock outcropping shooting out from the ocean’s edge. Beautiful view there, a must see for any tourist.
Outside of touring this, we were pretty wonderfully lazy and spent our 30 days: taking many hot showers with water pressure, sleeping in large comfy beds, watching movies, shopping at the local markets, riding our motor scooter around in the fresh air, swimming at the club, some working out, and spending really enjoyable time with new friends.
We loved Bali and were so glad we worked our way through the tourist maze to find a peaceful area to rest and enjoy. I’d say we could so easily see finding a way back here to spend more and more time.
We’re headed back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next to get our Visas for China (we hope) and take in the Incubus Concert.
Next big destination- Beijing, China (Home of: The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, Kung Fu, Olympic Stadium, Peking Duck and Northern Capital to over 1.5 billion people), Excited and a bit nervous.
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